On May 17, before a crowd of about 70 people, Northampton County officially broke ground on a new centralized human services building at 2801 Emrick Boulevard in Bethlehem Township. This project was approved by a 8-1 County Council vote in February, as a 15-year lease for a three-story, 66,375-square-foot building on 5.36 acres, with 256 parking places, at a cost of about $1 million a year in rent. After five years, the county will have an option to buy the property.

Polaris Properties, which owns the tract, expects to have the steel by July and to complete construction by next March.

County Executive John Stoffa calls the building a commitment to 18,000 Northampton County residents "who did not choose to get a mental illness; citizens who did not plan on being born with an intellectual disability; persons who never expected to become addicted to drugs or alcohol; children who did not ask to be sexually abused or physically harmed by their caretakers; and all of us who are aging, one day at a time, to the point that someday we will need someone to help us dress or eat."

Bethlehem Township Manager Howard Kutzler, along with commissioners Paul Weiss and Marty Zawarski, attended the groundbreaking. Weiss pledged to make the process "as smooth and seamless as possible ... I think we're all looking forward to you all being our neighbors. We look forward to that."